Many currently available refrigerators include water dispensers and automatic ice makers. Typically, water is supplied to the water dispenser and ice maker via connection to a household water tap source such as a municipal water supply or a rural well system. In recent years, water filters have been incorporated into refrigerators for filtering the water supplied from the household water tap.
Although current refrigerators have water filters incorporated therein, the water filtered from the water tap can be unsuitable to many persons to consume. It has been widely reported that water supplied from the water tap can be unhealthy for consumption, especially in the long term. For example, the water supplied from municipal water supplies can typically contain chlorine and various other chemicals that make the water unsuitable for consumption. Furthermore, during drought conditions, municipalities often recycle used water to clean the filtration system. This “back-wash water” is then put back into the reservoir to be treated and used. The problem is that the backwash can contain microbes, such as Giardia and Cryptosporidium, which can cause sickness. Additionally, the water supplied from a rural well system can contain high amounts of certain unhealthful minerals, runoff chemicals from nearby farms, and other harmful contaminants, which cannot always be adequately filtered.
Recently, many persons have turned to consuming bottled water because it is more pure than the water available from a household water tap. Bottled water is typically stored in the refrigerator compartment of a refrigerator or on a household water cooler. In this way, the water can be conveniently used for drinking but not for making ice. Most conventional refrigerators include an automatic ice maker connected to the household water tap for supplying water to make ice. As opposed to consuming the ice made from the ice maker, many persons fill up ice cube trays with bottled water to produce ice in the freezer compartment of the refrigerator. It would be beneficial to provide a refrigerator having a water supply system that can be conveniently connected with a water supply tank or bottled water source.
Some effort has been made to integrate the water from a bottled water container into the water dispenser or ice maker of a refrigerator. U.S. Pat. No. 6,039,219 discloses one attempt to integrate a refrigerator liquid dispenser with a refillable liquid bottle. The refillable liquid bottle is attached to the inside of the refrigerator compartment door for chilling the stored liquid. The liquid bottle includes an output connected through the refrigerator compartment door to the exterior for operation by an operator to dispense liquid. The patent fails to disclose any type of integration with an automatic ice maker. It would be beneficial to provide a system for integrating a refillable liquid bottle with an ice maker.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,570,266 discloses a refrigerator having an ice maker water reservoir. The water reservoir includes an inlet for connection to an automatic ice maker. Water can be obtained from a dispenser on the water reservoir. However, it would be beneficial to provide integration of a water supply tank to the water supply system of a refrigerator.
Despite progress in the art, exemplified by the forgoing patents, there exists a need in the art for a system for integrating a removable water supply tank with an automatic ice maker and a water dispenser of a refrigerator.